Effective Call Center Bonus Structures: 20+ Call Center Reward Ideas
Looking to create a call center bonus structure? In this guide, we’ll go over all you need to know in order to have an effective call center bonus plan for your agents. Call center bonus plans are critical as they increase retention, motivate agents, and boost customer satisfaction. To help you out, we'll cover call center bonus structures, the types of bonuses, and call center incentive ideas for your team. Let’s get started!
Call Center Bonus Plan Basics
Before we get into the details, let's make sure we understand the basic best practices for call center bonus structures. Your program should:
- Include a combination of monetary and non-monetary incentives
- Include team, individual, and company-based bonuses and incentives
- Allow individuals to have the most power in effecting their bonus through their own performance
With this in mind, let's go over the different kinds of bonus structures in more detail.
Call Center Bonus Structures
There are three main bonus structures that are typically used for agent bonus plans. Bonus structures can be one, a combination of two, or a mix of all the bonus structures listed below:
- Individual-Based: Bonus is based on set goals placed by the call center. When the goal is met, individual agents are eligible for a set bonus. This gives employees an incentive to go above and beyond in their responsibilities.
- Team-Based: Bonus is based on a team or department’s goals. All members of the team will receive bonuses when the goal set by the call center is achieved.
- Company-Based: Bonus is based on the company’s performance as a whole.
When considering the breakdown of your call center bonus structure, it is recommended to have employee bonus be the biggest portion of the eligible bonus, followed by the team bonus and company bonus as a means to keep your employees motivated as the biggest factor of their bonus payout.
Types of Call Center Bonuses
Performance-Based Bonus Structures
For this bonus type, the call center will set targets that agents must reach in order to receive a bonus. This can be individually based or team-based, and can be awarded once targets are met or on set time frames, from weekly and monthly to semi-annually or annually.
Ad Hoc Bonus Plans
This type of bonus is typically used to show gratitude towards agents for high performance. Ad hoc bonuses are flexible in that they are not planned like target bonuses, and don’t necessarily need to have a set amount. These are effective in keeping your agents feeling appreciative as they are unexpected, and they aren’t required to be large to make a difference. Agents will appreciate an extra gift, no matter how small.
Milestone Bonus Structures (Project-Based)
This type of bonus is award based on certain achievements that are not metrics based, such as length of service or completion of other special projects employees may have.
Creating Your Incentive Plan
Although cash bonuses are a great way to reward employees for exceptional work, there are other ways to reward and motivate employees. Once such way is through incentives, which are prizes that can motivate your team. Some don’t require any money at all, and can still be effective in boosting call center morale. If you need some ideas of what kind of incentives to offer to motivate your call center agents, take a look at the lists below:
Monetary Rewards and Recognition
- Personalized gifts -- mugs, shirts, etc.
- Restaurant gift cards
- Additional paid time off
- Team lunches
- Catered breakfast
- Team outings
- Amusement park passes
- Concert tickets
- Sports game ticket
- Wine tasting or brewery tour tickets
- Spa day
- Gym membership
- Meal delivery membership
- Cruise
- Uber of Lyft credit
- House cleaning voucher
- Hotel credit
- Team happy hour
Non-Monetary Rewards and Recognition
- Preferential scheduling
- VIP parking
- Preferential seating locations
- Extended lunch breaks
- Highlight in company email or newsletter
- Early release / late start
- Certificate of achievement
- Work from home days
- Highlight on social media
- Wall of Fame recognition
Looking for More Call Center Bonus Ideas?
We hope this post proved useful in your search for call center bonus structure information. If you didn't find what you were looking for, we encourage you to send us feedback and let us know how we can improve! Be sure to check back on our blog as we continue our series of call center resources for managers. To be notified of new articles by email, subscribe now!
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